Bloomberg: Homeless Shelters Not the ‘Plaza Hotel’

A night at a New York City homeless shelter won’t be mistaken for one at the Plaza Hotel, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday, a day after advocates and homeless people lambasted him for saying there’s less reason to leave city shelters because they have become a “much more pleasurable experience.”

The shelter system is “dramatically, dramatically better than it was 10 years ago,” Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show when asked about his controversial response to a story in The Wall Street Journal about a 30% increase in the length of stay at shelters for families with children.

“Is it great? No. It’s not the Plaza Hotel,” the mayor said. “Now, the newspapers have a field day and it’s very fun, but that’s not what shelter is supposed to be and that’s not what the public can afford or the public wants.”

Reports in the Journal and other city media on Friday recounted shelter occupants denouncing conditions. They described rats and roaches, the appearance of what appears to be mold on the walls and a general concern for safety.

“It is not going to be up to the standards of how everybody would want to live,” Bloomberg said Friday. “And the public doesn’t want to pay for it up to those standards, but we are making sure that it is safe and clean and, yes, I’m sure there’s plenty of places you can find where it isn’t perfect.”

The mayor dismissed the criticism of his administration’s homeless policies as a “made-up story” to sell newspapers.

On Thursday, Bloomberg described the shelter system he inherited when he took office in January 2002 as an “abomination.” On Friday, he said that comment shouldn’t be viewed as a criticism of his predecessor, Rudy Giuliani. The former mayor may have improved the shelters, he said, but he just doesn’t remember.

Earlier this year, a state judge blocked the city’s much-criticized plan to turn single adults away from homeless shelters unless they clearly demonstrate they have no other housing options, a policy City Council Speaker Christine Quinn described as “punitive” and “wrongheaded.”

But on Friday, the mayor continued to defend the rationale behind that policy, suggesting that some people might want to enter city shelters for the “experience.”

“If you just want to have a different place to live, or just try another experience, no, the public’s not going to pay for that,” he said, explaining that shelters should only be available to the truly needy.

As of earlier this week, the total citywide shelter population was 44,604, including 25,942 adults and 18,662 children, an all-time high. The population increased roughly 17.5% since last summer, records show.

The mayor attributed the rise in the shelter population and the lengthening of people’s stay there, in part, to the state and federal governments’ decision to stop funding a city rent-subsidy program that helped the homeless move from shelters to permanent housing.

Bloomberg blamed homeless advocates for helping “kill” the funding, an allegation the advocates have described as a smear. The mayor said the city can not afford a rent-subsidy program without financial aid from the state and federal governments.